For retirees and pre-retirees
My plan said yes. My advisor said yes. I still wasn't sure.
I'm 58. I put everything into Boldin, a DIY retirement and financial planning software, then hired their advisors to go over the plan, and got a chance of success in the high eighties and a “you're looking good.” And for some reason I still didn't feel comfortable. I just had a mental block about starting to withdraw from our retirement portfolio instead of depositing into it. I could not get comfortable with it.
I'm a quant developer, so I did what I know. I backtested our three-bucket withdrawal strategy through the last seven financial crises, as far back as my data would go. The numbers came back fine. But the chart showed a 35 percent drawdown, and a number on a chart is not the same as living through it. I wanted to live through it.
So every morning, with my coffee, I took one month of the backtest and asked what was happening in the world that month. The headlines, the markets, the anger and the fear. One month a day, for twenty years of history. It was better than anything on television. I came out the other side of all seven crises, and I saw my retirement in a new light. That is what gave me the confidence to retire.
I want to share this with you. I hope you get out of it what I did.
Will Berger, founder
Now it's a film, and it's yours
Rewind Portfolio turns that morning ritual into a film of your own plan, month by month, through a real stretch of history.
You retire on the first of the month
With your portfolio value, your strategy, and the monthly withdrawal you'd count on. Your first deposit lands at the end of that month.
Then the world happens
The front pages, the evening news, President Bush and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the neighbors' for-sale signs. Told in order, the way you lived it.
Your number moves with it
Your balance and your change since retiring stay on screen every month, green when you're up and red when you're down. Nothing is hidden or smoothed.
You reach the far side
The film runs to the end of the range, so you see not just the fall but what came after, and what the plan looked like when the dust settled.
The questions it answers
- Would my withdrawal have kept coming?
- How far down would I have been at the worst of it?
- How long until I was whole again?
- Would I have held on, or sold at the bottom?
A chart gives you the answer in a line. The film gives it to you the way you would have lived it, one month at a time, with everything else that was going on.
Be one of the first to watch yours.
We're building the first films now, starting with the 2008 financial crisis. Create your account to watch the first film, and we'll let you know when yours can be made.
Films are historical replays for education. Past results do not predict future returns, and nothing in a film is investment, tax, or financial advice.